


Eurasian Flyers

by Sweety_Mutant



Category: The Great Escape (1963)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Tumblr Prompt, happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-03-02 09:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweety_Mutant/pseuds/Sweety_Mutant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a perfect day, and Colin and Hendley planned to enjoy every minute of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eurasian Flyers

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The characters belong to the MGM & UA and the real life people belong to themselves. Guess what? I'm not a WWII veteran nor a Hollywood Official, so yeah, not mine :p
> 
> Here is a message from the sleep deprived author: I have no excuse for this OOC, unrealistic, fluffy, happy fanfic but well… I guess this makes it kind of an AU? I saw an adorable, really inspiring prompt on " " ( I recommend this blog ^^) : " post/47617269316/picture-prompt-flash-back-time-one-of-your"and I just wanted to write a little piece about this prompt It was really agreeable to do ( I was –and am still- working on a quite dark fic, so I needed this so much ^^)

It was a beautiful day of late September. The wintry chill was there had yet to settle in, and the morning sun was still warm. A gentle wind was blowing over the camp and into the pines. Yes, thought Colin, sipping his tea by the hut window, today was a perfect day.

"You're bright and early today!" said Hendley, coming back from his morning shower.

"Yes! If my calculations are right, today is the perfect day to see the migration of Eurasian Cranes." He smiled happily at his friend, who raised his eyebrows as an answer.

"It's a splendid bird! It lives in Northern Europe and Asia, and is sadly extinct in England… I usually travelled to France to see them migrate to North Africa every year… But I know they cross this part of Silesia!"

Hendley smiled fondly at his friend's enthusiasm. Colin and his birds…

"It sure sounds lovely. But, you don't have to work today?"

"No," said Blythe, is smile increasing "Sorren and Haynes want to set a new stooge system, so I'm out of business. You?"

"I've nothing to do, unless someone asks me to find a pyramid or…"

"A pair of binoculars. That would be really nice. Mine are chipped and Cranes like to fly high with the ascending winds..." Colin looked up at him with innocent large blue eyes.

Hendley knew he shouldn't accept. That he should keep his scrounging and manipulative skills to really important things… But he couldn't resist those eyes.

"I'll see what I can do about that. Werner should be on duty today… And Colin?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind if I joined you? I never paid attention to bird migrations but you make it sound like an… interesting experience."

"Of course! I would be more than pleased." Answered Colin, finishing his tea as Hendley leaved the room

The American knew exactly where to find Werner at this hour of the day. As he spotted the young German a few meters away, he began thinking of the way he could explain the situation. Maybe the truth…

"Good morning Werner! I was precisely thinking about you. How are you today?"

The guard flinched at the call, but smiled nonetheless sincerely as he answered:

"Hello Herr Hendley. I'm fine… thanks for asking. And you? You were thinking about me?"

"Yeah, Blythe and I just happened to want to do some bird watching, and I wanted to know if you knew where we could find spare binoculars."

The expressions on the German's face varied in a few seconds from fear to curiosity. He finally answered:

"Bird watching? I could… maybe… There are some in the camp's armory but I…"

"Yeah, It's about the migration of… I forgot their name…"

"Kranich? They migrate at this time…" Excitement had replaced curiosity.

"Something like that, yeah. You should talk about it with Colin. He's the pro."

"I… I can't! If Strachwitz sees me…He isn't supposed to work today but…It's his day off..."

Hendley saw the hesitation in Werner's eyes falter as he fidgeted. He knew he had won. All he needed now was just a little push…

"Why don't you come with us?"

"Oh no! I can't! it would be nice but…" he looked left, right, then whispered : "You won't tell anybody, right?"

Hendley put on his most angelic face.

"Of course. You know you can trust me."

"I guess… "

"Perfect. I will find you here in… fifteen minutes?" Hendley gave the guard an warm pat on the shoulder and leaved, his cat-who-ate-the-canary smile on his face. He was sure it would be a nice day. He would be mute as a stone, Werner could trust him. As he saw another guard come out of his hut, he was glad Werner hadn't thought of his colleagues seeing him, instead of hearing about him.

"Werner would like to join us, it isn't a problem?" said Hendley to Colin as he entered their shared room, throwing a pair of German field glasses in his friend's hands. Another was looped around his neck.

Colin caught them clumsily: "Birds interest him? If you don't see a problem, I don't object. I just hope Roger doesn't hear about this… I don't know how he would react."

Hendley shrugged half laughing at the thought of their good Squadron Leader's reaction. The two friends took some spare blankets from their closet and went outside in search of the little German guard.

Once they found him, they laid the blankets on a perfect spot on the ground, and sat there. Hendley watched fondly as Werner shared his experience on observing Cranes' nests when he was a kid with Colin. It was nice listening to them. He just needed to close his eyes to be home again, on a nice East Coast wild beach, surrounded by friends telling stories…It was indeed a perfect day. One of those days it seemed too easy to forget the war.

A lot of POWs gave them from strange to dirty looks as they laid sprawled on the blankets, gently chatting. Hendley was pretty sure he heard Hilts mutter something about "crazy guys". Luckily for them, Werner was right and Strachwitz never showed up that day.

They also saw Roger stop dead in his tracks to look questioningly at them, then turn back to whisper something to Mac, who laughed and patted him on the shoulder. They didn't know what Mac answered but it seemed to convince Roger not to interrupt them. Hendley felt deeply indebted to the Scot.

Half an hour passed, and they heard the familiar call of the Cranes. They instantly put on their binoculars and searched the sky.

"There!" said Werner, pointing eastward.

And indeed, a large flock - "Around three hundred specimens, splendid!" chipped in Colin- was flying towards them.

For beautiful minutes, the birds soared in the sky, dissembling and reassembling themselves as they took in the ascending hot hair. The three observers where oblivious to everything else, engrossed in the stunning sight above them.

Suddenly, their view of the birds was obstructed by shadows. They let go of the binoculars to see what was happening:

"Good afternoon. I hope we're not interrupting anything important." The clipped tones and accentuations were those of the Kommandant. He was accompanied by Ramsey. Upon realizing who was talking to them, Werner struggled to get up and salute, all color drained from his face. Hendley and Colin got up more tranquilly, saluting too.

"Good afternoon Sirs." Said politely Colin.

"Beautiful day isn't it?" said Ramsey

Hendley flashed his most charmingly insolent smile:

"Yes, indeed Sir. Now, if you Sirs would mind to step aside, we're bird-watching."

Werner had the decency to blush a deep crimson. Von Luger looked exasperated for one second, a warm spark in his eyes. Ramsey coughed, fighting a fit of laughter. The two old officers then resumed their slow walk across the compound, amused smiles sneaking on both of their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> Fin
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this fic, even if it is not written in my usual style. :) Don't forget to leave a review, it is always appreciated :)


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